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A knotty one because they couldn't play it at Lords because the Windies test was due to finish the day before the county match started. Though if thee match had been played and Middlesex had got 7 points they would have been ok.

Why don't Middx sue the ECB for staging a Test match at Lords and forcing them to play at Uxbridge?

Or demand a computerised simulation of the abandoned game which 'proves' that if it had gone ahead they would have scored 350 runs in their first innings and taken nine Hampshire wkts in 110 overs, which means Somerset are relegated?

Why don't Middx sue the ECB for staging a Test match at Lords and forcing them to play at Uxbridge?

Or demand a computerised simulation of the abandoned game which 'proves' that if it had gone ahead they would have scored 350 runs in their first innings and taken nine Hampshire wkts in 110 overs, which means Somerset are relegated?

Middx suffering because of bad weather, eh? Well, some of us Kent fans with long bitter memories might view this as justice almost precisely 40 years on. August 1977 was hit by some filthy weather. Middx were attempting to get their Gillette Cup semi final completed and, amazingly, the TCCB allowed them to postpone a Championship match to facilitate this. During the week in question, the Championship programme was virtually obliterated, with leaders Kent and the other contenders taking next to nothing in terms of points. Having escaped a certain washout, Middx played their rearranged fixture the following week - at Chelmsford - and secured a decent haul of bonus points. These helped them finish level on points with Kent (who, under modern rules, would have been outright Champions by dint of losing fewer games).

Middx's opponents in both the Gillette semi and the rearranged CC game? Somerset.

Why don't Middx sue the ECB for staging a Test match at Lords and forcing them to play at Uxbridge?

Or demand a computerised simulation of the abandoned game which 'proves' that if it had gone ahead they would have scored 350 runs in their first innings and taken nine Hampshire wkts in 110 overs, which means Somerset are relegated?

They might have drawn, in which case they only needed to score 2 bonus point, a lot less demanding as a team would have to play really badly not to do that. For Middlesex the golden scenario would have been for enough play to get some bonus points but not enough for a result, which may have gone the other way.

Middx suffering because of bad weather, eh? Well, some of us Kent fans with long bitter memories might view this as justice almost precisely 40 years on. August 1977 was hit by some filthy weather. Middx were attempting to get their Gillette Cup semi final completed and, amazingly, the TCCB allowed them to postpone a Championship match to facilitate this. During the week in question, the Championship programme was virtually obliterated, with leaders Kent and the other contenders taking next to nothing in terms of points. Having escaped a certain washout, Middx played their rearranged fixture the following week - at Chelmsford - and secured a decent haul of bonus points. These helped them finish level on points with Kent (who, under modern rules, would have been outright Champions by dint of losing fewer games).

Middx's opponents in both the Gillette semi and the rearranged CC game? Somerset.

Angus Fraser has made a complete ass of himself over this, just as Kent chairman George Kennedy did last year when he demanded the ECB promote Kent in Durham's place and relegate Hants along with Notts.

Kennedy's foolishness made his position untenable and he was forced to resign.Gus Fraser is a more decent and honourable character than Kennedy, so I would not be surprised to see Fraser now fall on his sword.

Quote:

Originally Posted by geoff_boycotts_grandmother

He should consider resigning:
(a) from his role at Middlesex because there's no way Middlesex should have been relegated with the amount of talent they had and the minimal England call-ups disrupting them;
(b) from his role with England because:
(i) he is conflicted unless he resigns from (a);
(ii) the England selectors have sucked large monkey balls at selection for some time now

He should not resign because he submitted an iffy appeal to the ECB that was defeated.

Maybe he should resign because he waited until it was apparent the points deduction would make the difference between staying up and going down instead of appealing immediately?

Middlesex were punished for an offence that lots of other counties appear to have got away with - the main issue for me is that so many counties routinely get let off the hook for the same thing.

Kent would have had less grounds to appeal last year if the ECB had implemented a points deduction that dropped Durham to the foot of Division 1 with Hants bumped up to 7th place - but the final table for 2016 still shows Durham in 4th place and Hants 8th, therefore I can understand why some people may say "hang on, if Hants are 8th they're in a relegation place so they should go down".

I hasten to add that I wouldn't for one moment have backed Kent's appeal. If Durham gained an unfair advantage in getting into debt then accepting the financial rescue package, it's the other teams they were competing against in Division 1 who deserved to benefit from the balance being redressed, not someone who hadn't competed against them in the Championship for five years.

A knotty one because they couldn't play it at Lords because the Windies test was due to finish the day before the county match started. Though if thee match had been played and Middlesex had got 7 points they would have been ok.

Yes it's understandable that they had to play at an out ground and you can't criticise them much for that. But are they exempt from blame for having an inadequate amount of covers stored at the ground until day 2 of the game and not having enough groundstaff on site to actually get those covers on quick enough? They were having to use Middlesex squad members and management staff (Angus Fraser included) to get the covers on at times. Surely that just comes down to incompetence and a failure in preparation.